CICERO
11 DE OTHONE
An impromptu speech delivered before a public assembly called by Cicero as consul on the spur of the moment to meet a crisis. The cause was rival demonstrations at the games of Apollo that threatened to turn into a riot (T 3). The catalyst was the appearance at the games of the praetor L. Roscius Otho (MRR 2:167). Though as plebeian tribune in 67 he had sponsored a law reserving seats in the theater for equites (see on 5 F 57), that is unlikely to have sparked a spontaneous outburst four years later (in spite of T 2 and 3). Rather, he may have been praetor urbanus in charge of organizing the games and thus took a prominent role. In addition, this was a year of low liquidity and rising debt (cf. Off. 2.84 on the demand for debt relief during his consulate). The urban praetor is likely to have made himself unpopular with the plebs by strict decisions enforcing the terms of contracts (cf. Cat. 1.32 on men
11 T 1 (= 12 T 1) Cic. Att. 2.1[21].3
Oratiunculas autem et quas postulas et pluris etiam mittam, quoniam quidem ea quae nos scribimus adulescentulorum
11 ON OTHO
11 ON OTHO1 (july 63 bc)
surrounding the praetor’s tribunal, presumably in a threatening manner; Sall. Cat. 33.1, 5). That would explain the opposing reactions of the plebs and the equites, a group that included the moneylenders.2 Cicero’s speech must have been a model of reproof and conciliation. This may be the speech Cicero compared to a flutist’s change of mode in order to quiet the passions of inebriated young men threatening the door of a chaste woman (On His Policies F 3 Garbarino = FRH 30 F 6).
11 T 1 Cicero, Letters to Atticus
I will send you the little speeches, both the ones you request and even more, since you take pleasure in the things
- 1This is the title used by Cicero (T 1); the author citing the one preserved fragment identifies the quotation as “when he called a public meeting from the games,” but this was surely not the title of the speech (for the tendency in the later tradition to use more generic labels, see the introduction to no. 7); for a different view, cf. Ryan 2016.
- 2This is the interpretation of Ramsey 2021, 19–26.